Predictive pre-authorization of transactions using passive biometrics

ABSTRACT

A system and method for predictive pre-authorization of transactions using biometrics which uses wireless mobile devices and biometric scanning to automatically predict pre-authorized transaction amounts in a secure manner without requiring the customer to handle his or her mobile device. The system and method uses a payment facilitation device at the business location which automatically detects and recognizes registered mobile devices, displays a photo of the customer to a business employee for identity confirmation, verifies the customer with a biometrics verification database, generates a pre-authorization amount with an authorization generator, and automatically deducts payments for purchases from a pre-authorized customer account.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Priority is claimed in the application data sheet to the followingpatents or patent applications, the entire written description of eachof which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety:

Ser. No. 16/950,101

Ser. No. 17/147,284

Ser. No. 17/005,038

Ser. No. 16/796,342

62/938,817

62/964,413

62/964,422

63/091,994

BACKGROUND Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of payment systems, and moreparticularly to the field of automated payment systems usingwireless-enabled mobile devices.

Discussion of the State of the Art

Wireless mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones) have enabledwireless payment technologies wherein the consumer makes a payment byreceiving a payment request on the customer's mobile device andauthorizing the payment by tapping an icon on the screen. However, suchtechnologies require the customer to remove his or her mobile devicefrom a pocket or bag, turn on the device, enter a passcode to open thedevice, and tap on the screen to approve payment or scan a QR code shownon the screen. These steps are inefficient and interfere with thebusiness/customer interaction, as the customer's attention is focused onhis or her mobile device instead of the interaction with the businessenvironment or the business' employees. These systems do not providetouchless payments with sufficient security, are not compatible withexisting business methodologies and cultures, and interfere with thebusiness/customer interaction. Further, biometric security in the fieldof mobile devices frequently relies on fingerprint analysis or, again,requires users to pull out their phones to scan their faces, furtherinterfering with the business/customer interaction. Additionally, whenpre-authorizations are used, the pre-authorization places a temporaryhold on the customer's credit card for some amount which blocks thecustomer from using those funds for other purposes, even if the entiretyof the pre-authorized amount is not necessary to complete thetransaction, unnecessarily inconveniencing the customer.

What is needed is a system and method for touchless payments that doesnot require the customer to handle his or her mobile device, whichprovides sufficient security, which is compatible with existing businessmethodologies and cultures, which integrates seamless biometricverifications, which supports predictive pre-authorization oftransactions, and which does not interfere with the business/customerinteraction.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, asystem and method for predictive pre-authorization of transactions usingbiometrics which uses wireless mobile devices and biometric scanning toautomatically authorize transaction amounts in a secure manner withoutrequiring the customer to handle his or her mobile device. The systemand method uses passive biometrics and a payment facilitation device atthe business location which automatically detects and recognizesregistered mobile devices, displays a photo of the customer to abusiness employee for identity confirmation, verifies the customer witha biometrics verification database, generates a pre-authorization amountwith a authorization generator, and automatically deducts payments forpurchases from a pre-authorized customer account. The customer accountis managed by a payment processing server, which stores the customeraccount data, makes appropriate deductions, sends confirmation ofdeductions to the customer's mobile device, and automatically refillsthe customer's account by making pre-authorized charges to thecustomer's banking institution. Biometric data is handled by abiometrics verification server which handles storage and comparison ofbasic biometric data such as voice files and facial data. Predictivepre-authorization is coordinated by an authorization generator whichstores restaurant ticket data, customer ticket data, and customeraccount preferences to generate a pre-authorized transaction amount.

According to a preferred embodiment, a system for predictivepre-authorization of transactions using biometrics is disclosed,comprising: a computing device comprising a memory, a processor, and anon-volatile data storage device; a customer information database on thenon-volatile data storage device, the database comprising customerhistory data, the customer history data comprising customer receiptdata, bank, debit, or credit card details, and customer preferences; abusiness enterprise database on the non-volatile data storage device,the database comprising business enterprise sales data; a biometricsverification module comprising a first plurality of programminginstructions stored in the memory, and operating on the processor,wherein the first plurality of programming instructions, when operatingon the processor, cause the computing device to: receive audio data, orvideo data, or both; match received audio data, or video data, or bothwith stored biometric data to confirm an identity of a specificcustomer; and send a confirmation of identity signal to an authorizationgenerator; and an authorization generator module comprising a firstplurality of programming instructions stored in the memory, andoperating on the processor, wherein the first plurality of programminginstructions, when operating on the processor, cause the computingdevice to: receive the confirmation of identity signal from thebiometrics verification module; retrieve a subset of the customerhistory data from the customer database that corresponds to the specificcustomer; retrieve a subset of the business enterprise sales data fromthe business enterprise database; compute a customer average transactionamount using the customer receipt data from the subset of the customerhistory data; compute a business average transaction amount using thebusiness enterprise sales data; and determine, using a machine-learnedpredictive algorithm, a pre-authorization amount using the customeraverage transaction amount, the business average transaction amount, andthe customer preferences from the subset of the customer history data asinputs into the machine-learned predictive algorithm.

According to another preferred embodiment, a method for predictivepre-authorization of transactions using biometrics is disclosed,comprising the steps of: storing customer information in a database, thecustomer information comprising: a list of registered wireless mobiledevices; a device identifier for each registered wireless mobile device;a photograph of a customer associated with each registered wirelessmobile device; and payment details for the customer associated with eachregistered wireless mobile device; and performing the following stepsusing a biometrics verification module, the payment facilitation devicecomprising a first memory, a first processor, and a first plurality ofprogramming instructions: receiving audio data, or video data, or both;matching received audio data, or video data, or both with storedbiometric data to confirm an identity of a specific customer; andsending a confirmation of identity signal to an authorization generator;and performing the following steps using an authorization generatormodule, the payment facilitation server comprising a second memory, asecond processor, and a second plurality of programming instructions:receiving the confirmation of identity signal from the biometricsverification module; retrieving a subset of the customer history datafrom the customer database that corresponds to the specific customer;retrieving a subset of the business enterprise sales data from thebusiness enterprise database; computing a customer average transactionamount using the customer receipt data from the subset of the customerhistory data; computing a business average transaction amount using thebusiness enterprise sales data; and determining, using a machine-learnedpredictive algorithm, a pre-authorization amount using the customeraverage transaction amount, the business average transaction amount, andthe customer preferences from the subset of the customer history data asinputs into the machine-learned predictive algorithm.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, a unified communications systemis used as a common intermediary device through which the paymentfacilitation device, the payment facilitation server, and registeredwireless mobile device communicate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the aspects. It will be appreciated by one skilled in theart that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a zero-step authentication system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of zero-step authentication system, the payment facilitationserver.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary flow of payments inan embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary business/customerinteraction and showing an exemplary screenshot.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary bill splitting feature andshowing an exemplary screenshot.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forregistration of a customer's mobile device and order placement.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forzero-step authentication and completion of a transaction.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forestablishment of an account and pre-authorization of payments.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forbill splitting among customers.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forfunds transfer among customers.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services.

FIG. 14 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a predictive pre-authorization system using biometricauthentication.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of predictive pre-authorization system, the authorizationgenerator.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of predictive pre-authorization system, the feature selector andclassifier, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forpredictive pre-authorization using biometrics and completion of atransaction.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system and methodfor predictive pre-authorization of transactions using biometrics whichuses wireless mobile devices and biometric scanning to automaticallypredict pre-authorize transaction amounts in a secure manner withoutrequiring the customer to handle his or her mobile device. The systemand method uses a payment facilitation device at the business locationwhich automatically detects and recognizes registered mobile devices,displays a photo of the customer to a business employee for identityconfirmation, verifies the customer with a biometrics verificationdatabase, generates a pre-authorization amount with an authorizationgenerator, and automatically deducts payments for purchases from apre-authorized customer account. The customer account is managed by apayment processing server, which stores the customer account data, makesappropriate deductions, sends confirmation of deductions to thecustomer's mobile device, and automatically refills the customer'saccount by making pre-authorized charges to the customer's bankinginstitution. Biometric data is handled by a biometrics verificationserver which handles storage and comparison of basic biometric data suchas voice files and facial data. Predictive pre-authorization iscoordinated by an authorization generator which retrieves businessenterprise data, and customer information data to generate apre-authorized transaction amount.

The authorization generator uses the stored data to closely predict thetotal transaction amount so that only the amount that is required tocomplete the transaction is pre-authorized. This limits the amount ofthe customer account that needs to be put on hold to complete thetransaction which means more of the customer's money is left available.

In a typical scenario, the customer enters a business establishment witha customer mobile device which has an application and a connectedpayment method (bank card, debit card, credit card) stored within theapplication. The customer undergoes passive biometric scanning thatidentifies and authenticates the customer. Upon identification andauthentication, the customer is automatically authorized for the amountof an average ticket at a restaurant. The waiter will verify thecustomer identity and will see that the customer is pre-authorized foran amount, and is free to place an order. If the customer exceeds thepre-authorized amount, then incremental authorization may occuraccording to customer defined account preferences in the application.For example, a regular customer who normally orders an entree and aglass of wine for dinner will be pre-authorized for an amount that willcover the costs of his typical ticket, but on a certain evening thecustomer also orders a desert. The system will recognize the anomaly andmay automatically increment his pre-authorization amount by $10 as wasdefined in his account preferences. If the customer has visited therestaurant before and there is customer history data available, then thecustomer will be pre-authorized for an amount based on the customer'saverage ticket amount relative to the restaurant's average ticketamount. After the customer finishes the meal, he or she may stand up toleave without interacting with the restaurant staff. The restaurantstaff knows which customers are allowed to get up and leave becausecustomers without the application won't show up on the mobile device ofthe waiter, whereas pre-authorized customers will. When the customerleaves the restaurant, the pre-authorized amount is converted to acharge and the customer's account is charged for the bill. Otherembodiments are possible. For example, if the customer does not have theapplication, but the restaurant has cameras installed on the system, thecustomer can be identified with facial recognition and predictivepre-authorization can still occur without any interaction, assuming thecustomer is registered with the system.

In another typical scenario, prior to arriving at the restaurant thecustomer may use the application to specify who in a party the customerwill be paying for. When this happens, orders are by tables and seats.When the customer arrives to the restaurant, the waiter will see thecustomer's face on her mobile device and drag the customer's face totable five. The customer may declare he is paying for seats one to threeat table five, and whatever is ordered to the customer's “covered seats”will be charged to him when he leaves the restaurant.

The customer may have multiple payment cards connected with theapplication. One card is selected as the default card. If the customerdecides to switch cards mid-meal, then the predictive pre-authorizationprocess is repeated using the new switched card. If the default carddoes not have a sufficient balance to support the pre-authorized amount,then the system can switch to a different card. If neither card has asufficient balance, then the pre-authorization may be split betweenthem. For example, if a customer has a corporate card and a personalcard connected to the system, and the customer exceeds corporate limits(e.g. alcohol), then those items will automatically be charged to thecustomer's personal card. Additionally, the system may support aparental card with limits (parent will only pay for X, or only pay for Xamount), and the student card takes the rest of the charge.

If the card and phone do not match face recognition then the system mayprevent display of the customer's image on the waiter's mobile device,and an alert may be sent to the card owner unless an exception has beenestablished. Exceptions may be established by patterns of conduct (e.g.couple that regularly dines together) or by explicit permissionpreviously provided by the card owner. In the case of an exception, thewaiter may identify the customer visually and drag accordingly. Forexample, a customer and his wife often dine together using the husband'sapplication account on his mobile device. If the wife was to come in byherself for a meal, then the waiter would find her picture as anexception under her husband's account, and the waiter could recognizeher and drag her picture to authenticate her identity and initialize thepredictive pre-authorization process using her husband's accountinformation.

While the examples herein primarily discuss authorization of payments,the invention is not limited to authorization of monetary transactions,and can be used for authorization and transfer of any asset, orrepresentation of an asset, that can be transferred electronically, forexample: electronic transfers of real currency (credit card charges,bank transfers and payments, etc.), transfers of blockchain-basedcurrencies such as Bitcoin, and transfers of digitized contracts orpromises to pay or transfer physical assets (including, but not limitedto, IOUs, certificates of ownership of stocks or other securities, anddeeds for real estate).

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Definitions

“Business establishment” or “place of business” as used herein mean thelocation of any business entity with which customers may transactbusiness. Typically, this will be a physical location where customersmay enter the location and transact business directly with employees ofthe business, but may also be a business without a physical locationsuch as an online or telephone order retailer. Many examples herein usea restaurant as the business establishment, but the invention is notlimited to use in restaurants, and is applicable to any businessestablishment.

The term “network” as used herein means any communication connectionbetween two or more computing devices, whether such connection is madedirectly (e.g., from one device containing a Bluetooth radio to anotherdevice containing a Bluetooth radio) or through an intermediary devicesuch as a router, where a number of devices connected to the router mayall communicate with one another.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture100 for a zero-step authentication system. The primary components of thesystem are a payment facilitation device 103, a unified communicationsdevice or telephony exchange system (UC system) 101, and a paymentfacilitation server 200. Components or services that may connect to orbe accessed by the system include wireless customer mobile devices 102,and payment processors 109. The payment facilitation device 103 is acomputing device located at a business establishment that is connected(wired or wirelessly) to a UC system 101. The payment facilitationdevice 103 may be wired, or wireless, or both, depending on theimplementation of a given embodiment. While a payment facilitationdevice 103 and UC system 101 are specified in this embodiment, it is notrequired that they be precisely in this configuration, and otherconfigurations are possible, including a non-SIP computing deviceconnected to a network without a UC system 101. The payment facilitationdevice 103 comprises a screen (not shown) and applications for acustomer information entry portal 104 and a customer identificationconfirmation application 105. The payment facilitation device 103 may bea mobile computing device like a mobile phone or tablet computer or maybe a desktop or tabletop computing device.

The customer information entry portal 104 is an application on thepayment facilitation device 103 that allows an employee of the businessto enter customer details such as name, telephone number, deviceidentifier, bank, debit, or credit card details, payment preferences,and, if necessary, customer account refill limits and customer accountrefill amounts. The device identifier may be any information that allowsthe system to identify the customer mobile device 102, including, butnot limited to, a mobile access control (MAC) address (e.g., a MACaddress for the device's WiFi radio, a MAC address for the device'sBluetooth radio, etc.), the device's 102 serial number, the device'smobile equipment identifier (MEID) or international mobile equipmentidentity (IMEI) number, the integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID)of the subscriber identity module (SIM) card inserted into the customermobile device 102, and the device's 102 secure element identification(SEID) number.

The customer identification and confirmation application 105 is anapplication that provides security in financial transactions by allowingthe employee of the business to visually confirm the identity of thecustomer making a transaction. For example, the payment facilitationdevice at a particular business location may be connected to multiplecustomer devices simultaneously. The customer identification andconfirmation application 105 may display a photo of the user (customer)of each such connected customer device, and the employee may select thedevice of the customer making the transaction by clicking on thecustomer's photo as displayed by the customer identification andconfirmation application 105 on the payment facilitation device 103.

The UC system 101 is a device or service (e.g., online service) thatintegrates different methods of communication (e.g., phone calls, videocalls, short message service (SMS), instant messaging (chat), email) andallows for all of those different methods of communication to beaccessed through a computing device such as a mobile phone or tabletcomputer. A UC system 101 is the modern, and much more flexible andpowerful, form of a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone equipmentsystem that allowed businesses to connect multiple internal telephonesto a single incoming telephone line. In this example, the UC system 101acts as the interface between the payment facilitation device 103, thecustomer mobile devices 102, and the payment facilitation server 200.

A customer mobile device 102 may be connected to the system via anywireless network connection, for example through the Internet 106, amobile (cellular) network 107, or through a local wireless network 108such as WiFI, Bluetooth, etc. In the case of remote connections such asthose made through the Internet 106 or mobile service 107, the locationof a customer mobile device 102 and its location relative to the paymentfacilitation device 103 or other customer mobile devices 102 may beestablished through use of the device's satellite positioning systemhardware (e.g., GPS, GLONASS, Galileo), by identifying the location ofan intermediary device to which the device is connected (e.g., a WiFirouter, etc). In the case of local connections, which typically useshort range wireless transmissions, it may not be necessary to determinethe location of the mobile customer device 102 because the short rangeof wireless communications establishes that the payment facilitationdevice 103 or other mobile customer devices are nearby. For example,when using a Bluetooth Class 2 connection to connect to other devices,it will be apparent that the other devices are nearby because BluetoothClass 2 has an effective range on the order of 10 meters.

In a typical scenario, the first time a customer enters a businessestablishment with a customer mobile device 102, an employee of thebusiness establishment will enter the customer's information using thecustomer information entry portal 104 and register the customer mobiledevice 102 using the customer mobile device's 102 identification. When acustomer mobile device 102 enters a business establishment, the paymentfacilitation device 103 and customer mobile device 102 willautomatically detect each other and establish a network connection. Thepayment facilitation device 103 will recognize the customer mobiledevice 102 using the customer mobile device's identifier. As thecustomer makes an order, the business's employee will confirm theidentity of the customer using the customer identification confirmationapplication 105. The payment facilitation device connects to the paymentfacilitation server 200, either directly or through the UC system 101,forwards the customer information and order information to the paymentfacilitation server 200. The payment facilitation server 200, checks thecustomer's account and either deducts and appropriate amount from thecustomer's prepaid account or sends the payment details to a paymentprocessor 109 for processing. Once the payment is processed, the paymentfacilitation server 200 sends a confirmation of the payment either tothe payment facilitation device 103, the customer mobile device 102, orboth. In a scenario where the customer is in a remote location from thebusiness establishment (e.g., a phone order or online order), theprocess is much the same except that the first time customer informationentry and mobile device registration occurs remotely, and the employeedoes not visually identify the customer (although other methods ofidentifying the customer may apply, such as personal identificationnumber (PIN) codes, voice print identification, telephone numberidentification, or customer mobile device 102 identifiers).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of zero-step authentication system, the payment facilitationserver 200. The payment facilitation server 200 manages customerinformation and payments from multiple customers. In this example, thepayment facilitation server comprises a customer information database201, a customer identification engine 202, a payment processing manager209, and one or more applications for managing bill splitting, fundtransfers, and account information. Note that, in some embodiments, thebill splitting and fund transfer applications may be applications on thecustomer mobile device 102 instead of on the payment facilitation server200. As the payment facilitation server receives customer informationand device registrations, it stores them in a customer informationdatabase. Such customer information may comprise customer details suchas name, telephone number, device identifier, bank, debit, or creditcard details, payment preferences, and, if necessary, customer accountrefill limits and customer account refill amounts. The device identifiermay be any information that allows the system to identify the customermobile device 102, including, but not limited to, a mobile accesscontrol (MAC) address (e.g., a MAC address for the device's WiFi radio,a MAC address for the device's Bluetooth radio, etc.), the device's 102serial number, the device's mobile equipment identifier (MEID) orinternational mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number, the integratedcircuit card identifier (ICCID) of the subscriber identity module (SIM)card inserted into the customer mobile device 102, and the device's 102secure element identification (SEID) number.

The customer identification engine 202 provides additional security byconfirming the identity of the customer before processing payments. Inthis example, the customer identification engine 202 has three separateidentification methods, a voiceprint identifier 203, a telephone numberidentifier 204, and a device ID identifier 205. The voiceprintidentifier 203 can provide confirmations of customer identities eitherby matching voice samples of specific words and phrases provided by thecustomer as during account creation and device registration or, in amore sophisticated version, may match the customer's voice to any spokenwords and phrases using machine learning algorithms. The telephonenumber identifier 204 receives caller identification (caller ID)information from the UC system 101, and verifies that the phone numberfrom which the order is being made matches the phone number in thecustomer account information. The device ID identifier 205 receives adevice identifier from the UC system 101 and matches it to the deviceidentifier in the customer database 201 to confirm that the device isregistered. In some embodiments, other methods of identifying thecustomer may be used, for example, PIN codes. In some embodiments, twoor more of these identifiers may be used together to confirm thecustomer's identity.

As customer information and order information is received, the paymentfacilitation server 200 checks the customer's account using the customeraccount management application 208 and either deducts and appropriateamount from the customer's prepaid account or sends the payment detailsto the payment processing manager 209, which forwards the paymentrequest to a payment processor 109 for processing. Once the payment isprocessed, the payment facilitation server 200 sends a confirmation ofthe payment either to the payment facilitation device 103, the customermobile device 102, or both.

The bill splitting application 206 receives a bill that is to be sharedby two or more customers (e.g., a restaurant dining bill), the deviceidentifier of two or more customer mobile devices 102, and provides aninterface for those customers to allocate items on the bill between thecustomers. Once each of the customers involved approves the allocation,the bill splitting application forwards each customer's portion of thebill to the payment processing manager 209 The fund transfer application207 operates in a similar manner for fund transfers between customers.Customers involved in the fund transfer specify amounts to betransferred to other customers, and once approved by all customersinvolved in the fund transfer, the fund transfer application forforwards the approved funds transfers to the payment processing manager209 for execution.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary flow of payments 300in an embodiment. When a customer 303 authorizes a transaction (whichauthorization may be pre-approved) through his or her customer mobiledevice 102, the payment authorization is sent to the business 302 at thebusiness' payment facilitation device 103. The payment facilitationdevice 103 of the business 302 sends a payment request to the paymentfacilitation server 200. The payment facilitation server 200 checks thecustomer's pre-paid account 304 to determine whether pre-paid funds areavailable. If such funds are available, a deduction is made from thecustomer pre-paid account 304 in the amount of the authorized payment,and a confirmation is confirmed by the payment facilitation server 200.If sufficient funds are not available in the customer pre-paid account,the account is either refilled or a direct payment request is made. Ineither such case, the payment facilitation server 200 sends a paymentrequest to a payment processor 109, which are financial intermediarieslike Visa and Mastercard, who process transactions on behalf offinancial institutions 301 (i.e., banks). The payment processor 109sends the payment request to a financial institution 301 at which thecustomer 303 has an account. The financial institution 301 receives thepayment request, and sends a payment to the payment processor 109,typically along with a transaction fee. The payment processor 109receives the payment and transaction fee, and forwards the payment tothe payment facilitation server along with a portion of the transactionfee. The payment facilitation server 200 forwards the payment to thebusiness 302, which forwards a confirmation of payment 303 to thecustomer, completing the transaction.

Detailed Description of Exemplazy Aspects

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary business/customerinteraction 400 and showing an exemplary screenshot. In this example, acustomer 401 (who already has an account and registered device 402 at abusiness establishment) makes an order. The customer's device 402 andthe payment facilitation device 103 detect each other and establish aconnection when the customer 401 enters the business establishment. Thecustomer's photograph 403 is displayed on the business' paymentfacilitation device 103, along with the customer's information 404 andorder details 405. An employee of the business clicks on the customerphotograph 403 to confirm the identity of the customer 401. Onceconfirmed, the customer device 402 automatically approves payment andreceives confirmation of the payment without the customer having thehandle the device 402. The customer device 402 may remain in thecustomer's pocket, purse, backpack, etc., and does not have to beremoved to complete the transaction.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary bill splitting feature 500and showing an exemplary screenshot. In this example, three customers,Bob 501, Sally 503, and Joe 505, each with their respective mobiledevices 502, 504, and 506, have a meal together at a restaurant and wantto split the bill among themselves. Each customer's mobile device has abill splitting application installed on it, which shows a copy of thebill and the customers who dined together. For example, Bob's 501 mobiledevice 502 shows the bill information 507 for the group on the left-handside of his screen, and a window for himself 508, a window for Sally509, and window for Joe 510 on the right side. The mobile devices 504,506 of Sally 503 and Joe 505 show similar screens. The windows 508, 509,510, each show a photo (or other representation) of the customer, aspace for allocating items from the bill, and a total of the itemsallocated to that customer. As each customer, on his or her respectivemobile device 502, 504, 506, allocates food and drink items from thebill information 507 by clicking on them and dragging them to the windowof a person on the right, the allocation of those food and drink itemsappears in the window of the person to whom the item has been allocated,as indicated by the arrows. For example, the risotto Milanese and whitewine have been allocated to Bob (either by Bob or by one of the othertwo customers), a total due from Bob of $26 is shown, and thisinformation is updated on all three mobile devices 502, 504, 506. Onceall three customers 501, 503, 505 approve the allocation, each person'smobile device 502, 504, 506 processes the payment for the amountallocated to that customer. In some embodiments, unallocated items maybe automatically split among the customers in the group.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forregistration of a customer's mobile device and order placement. When acustomer calls restaurant a first time to place an order 601, thecustomer's telephone number is captured using UC telephony equipment,and additional customer information is gathered and entered intodatabase by an employee of the business 602. The customer than makes hisor her order and the order is completed 603. Each time the customermakes a subsequent call to same business to place an order 604, thecustomer's telephone number is captured using UC telephone equipment,and the customer's information is retrieved from a customer databaseusing a customer identification application 605. The customer than makeshis or her order and the order is completed 606 without the customerhaving to provide his or her information. The same procedure is usedwhen a customer physically enters a business establishment, except thatthe registration is performed in person.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forzero-step authentication and completion of a transaction. When acustomer enters a business establishment 701, the customer's wirelessdevice and business payment facilitation device detect each other andautomatically establish connection 702. The business paymentfacilitation device retrieves the customer device identifier (ID) anduses the customer device ID to retrieve customer information fromcustomer information database located on a payment facilitation server703. The business payment facilitation device displays customer's photoand information to a restaurant employee, who confirms customer'sidentity by clicking on the photo of the customer 704. The customer theplaces an order 705. When the order is placed, the business paymentfacilitation devices ends payment details to payment facilitationserver, which either deducts amount from customer's pre-paid accountbalance or sends charge to payment processors 706. Optionally, anadditional security step may be inserted wherein the customer's wirelessdevice receives and displays a request for confirmation of the orderfrom the business CIP device and the customer clicks on the displayedrequest to confirm the order 707. Finally, the customer's order iscompleted 708.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forestablishment of an account and pre-authorization of payments. First, acustomer establishes and account using his or her customer mobile deviceand provides payment details (e.g., credit card, debit card, bankdetails for ACH, etc.) 801. The customer then sets automatic an accountpayment limit, a refill limit, and a refill amount 802. For example, thecustomer may set a payment limit for each transaction at $50, a refilllimit (i.e., minimum account balance below which the account will beautomatically refilled) of $10, and a refill amount of $100. Thecustomer may choose to have such payments sent automatically withouthandling his or her mobile device (zero-step authentication) 803 or maychoose to authorize each payment individually using his or her mobiledevice 804. A customer account management application funds the accountin the amount of the refill amount using payment details 805. Thus, inthis example, the customer has pre-authorized payments of up to $50 pertransaction, and pre-authorized the system to automatically refill hisaccount from the customer's financial institution (or credit card) inthe amount of $100 whenever the account balance falls below $10. Whenthe customer places an order, the customer account managementapplication checks account balance, deducts an amount equal to the orderfor the order (after confirmation, if required), and refills accountbalance using payment information if the account balance falls below therefill limit 806.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forbill splitting among customers. Each customer mobile device runs anapplication that shows nearby customer devices also using the paymentsystem 901. Customers dining together form a group by selecting oneanother (or accepting a group formation created by one or more of them)902. Each customer's device displays a copy of the itemized bill on oneside of the screen, and a photo (or other representational image) ofeach other customer in the group on the other side of the screen 903.One or more of the customers in the group assigns payment by clickingand dragging items from the itemized bill to the photo (or image) of thecustomer responsible for paying for that item 904. When the group isfinished assigning payments, each customer approves his/her proposedpayment assignments, with unassigned items being distributed equallyamong the customers in the group 905. After all customers in the grouphave approved their payment assignments, the payment system processespayments from each customer's account according to the approved paymentassignments 906.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forfunds transfer among customers. Each customer mobile device runs anapplication that shows nearby customer devices also using the paymentsystem 1001. Customers wishing to exchange funds form a group byselecting one another (or accepting a group formation created by one ormore of them) 1002. Each customer's device displays a photo (or otherrepresentational image) of each other customer in the group 1003. One ormore of the customers in the group proposes a fund transfer by clickingand dragging from one customer to another, creating an arrow betweenthat pair of customers in the group indicating a direction of transfer,and enters an amount of funds to be transferred 1004. When the group isfinished proposing fund transfers, each customer approves his/herproposed fund transfer(s) 1005. After all customers in the group haveapproved their proposed transfers, the payment system processes paymentsfrom each customer's account according to the approved fund transfers1006.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a zero-step authentication system using biometric authentication. Afacial scanner 1510 such as a digital camera and Application-SpecificIntegrated Circuit (“ASIC”), or a digital camera connected to a personalcomputer, tablet, phone, or other computing device with appropriatesoftware, may be connected to either or both of the internet 1530 or alocal network 1540, sending authentication requests and video or imagedata, and receiving either a success or failure message, or a percentagesimilarity message regarding the match chance of a given customer to astored set of data, from a biometrics verification server hosted overthe internet 1531 or one hosted locally 1541. A voice scanner 1520 mayoperate similarly but rather than operating with a digital camera, thevoice scanner 1520 operates with a microphone that may or may not bepart of a digital camera (such as an embedded webcam that may be usedfor both the facial scanner 1510 as well as the voice scanner 1520), andmay be connected to a separate ASIC or personal computer, tablet, phone,or other computing device, or may be connected to the same computingdevice that the facial scanner 1510 is connected to. The voice scanner1520 may also, in a separate or in a joined network connection with thefacial scanner 1510, be connected over either or both of the internet1530 and a local network 1540 to a remote or local biometricsverification server 1531, 1541, for the purposes of sending receivedbiometrics data including voice data to the servers, and receiving backa match to a user in the server's datastores. A singular or plurality ofpayment processors 1550 are accessible by either or both of thebiometrics scanners 1510, 1520 and accompanying computer systems asapplicable, such as VISA™, MASTERCARD™, PAYPAL™, or others, to allow theverification and execution of customer purchases with a paymentfacilitation server 200 as described in FIG. 2. Upon confirmation ofidentity from the biometrics verification server 1531, 1541, anauthorization generator 1560 may retrieve: customer information storedwithin the payment facilitation server 200, business enterpriseinformation (e.g. restaurant ticket and sales data, menu items andprices, specials, staff schedules, etc.) from a business enterprisedatabase which may be stored locally on a physical device such as a harddrive or thumb drive, or stored remotely using cloud-based storagesystem, and mobile device data. The authorization generator 1560determines the amount of money that should be pre-authorized fortransactional purposes using subsets of the retrieved data as inputsinto a machine learned predictive algorithm.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of predictive pre-authorization system, the authorizationgenerator 1600. The authorization generator 1600 may use a variety ofdata to predict a pre-authorized transaction amount 1645. The processbegins when the generator receives a confirmation of identity signal1605 from a biometrics verification server 1531, 1541. The signal maycontain a customer identifier that may be used to retrieve a subset ofcustomer information data that corresponds to the identified customer.The customer information data is stored in a customer informationdatabase 201 located within a payment facilitation server 200 and maycomprise customer details such as name, telephone number, deviceidentifier, bank, debit, or credit card details, payment preferences,and customer defined account preferences such as pre-authorizationincrement and tipping defaults. The identified customer bank, debit, orcredit details are sent to payment verification 1610 which verifies thatcustomer payment accounts are active and that sufficient funds areavailable to facilitate a transaction. If payment verification 1610determines a transaction cannot be completed (e.g. insufficient funds,account status, etc.) the authorization generator 1600 may stopexecution and send a message to the waiter's mobile device alerting themthat the transaction cannot be conducted; otherwise the authorizationgenerator 1600 proceeds uninterrupted with its process.

The data processor 1625 may retrieve, ingest, clean, prepare, andotherwise manipulate data from a variety of data sources such as acustomer information database 201, a business enterprise database 1615,and mobile device data 1620, among other data sources. In an embodimentfor a restaurant use case, business enterprise data may compriseinformation including but not limited to, restaurant ticket and salesdata, menu items and prices, specials, and employee schedules. Mobiledevice data 1620 may include location, text, voice, and social mediadata. The data processor 1625 performs a variety of pre-processingactions including but not limited to, deduplication, error correction,normalization, randomization, vectorization, filtering, and data typeconversion. For example, some data may need to be translated to a .CSVfile. Fully processed and prepared data is sent to the feature selectionand classifier 1630 which may identify the features (i.e. variables)that are most pertinent to predicting a transaction amount and then usethose features and the data to build, train, and test a classificationmodel that can be used to predict a transaction amount. A few examplesof possible identified features may include customer preferences,restaurant ticket, type of restaurant, group details, customer ticket,or time, among others. For more detailed information about theclassifier 1630 and the machine learning algorithm see FIG. 17 below.Once a fully trained, tested, and evaluated classification model hasbeen developed and is ready for practical applications, it is includedin the pre-authorization engine 1635 which applies session data 1640 tothe classification model. Session data 1640 refers to the subsets ofdata from the customer information database 201, the business enterprisedatabase 1615, and mobile device data 1620 that are retrieved when acustomer's biometric data has been verified. The session data 1640 isinput into the machine learned predictive classification model and apre-authorized transaction amount 1645 is generated.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anaspect of predictive pre-authorization system, the feature selector andclassifier 1700. Pre-processed data 1705 enters the classifier 1700 andis divided into two different sets of data: a test set 1710 and atraining set 1715. The training set 1715 is used as input into a machinelearning algorithm 1720 to train and build a predictive classifier model1735. According to an embodiment, the machine learning algorithm 1720may be a neural network that utilizes deep learning techniques to buildan accurate and applicable classification model that can predict atransaction amount. In other embodiments, the machine learning algorithmmay be a supervised or unsupervised process. For example, supervisedalgorithms may include but is not limited to, linear, logistic, orpolynomial regression, decision tree, or random forest. Some examples ofunsupervised learning may include clustering, association analysis, andhidden Markov model.

The machine learning algorithm 1720, using the training set 1715produces a model that can make predictions. The predictive results ofthe model are evaluated 1725 by comparing the results against the testset 1710 of data to check the accuracy of the model. If the results arenot satisfactory, as measured against a predetermined model errorthreshold, then the model needs to be improved through further training.Each iteration of the model and its output are saved to a model database1730 which stores model state information that allows the classifier1700 to adjust the parameters of each iteration of the model until theresults are satisfactory. As data is received by the system, the modelis continuously trained and evaluated so that it accurately reflectscurrent event data. A model that meets the threshold of accuracy isready for predictive applications and is referred to as the classifiermodel 1735. This model is sent to the pre-authorization engine 1635where it can make a prediction for a specific customer based upon asubset of customer data, business enterprise data, and mobile devicedata.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram showing the steps of an exemplary method forpredictive pre-authorization using biometrics and completion of atransaction. When a customer enters a business establishment 1805, thecustomer's wireless device and business payment facilitation devicedetect each other and automatically establish connection 1810. Thebusiness payment facilitation device retrieves the customer deviceidentifier (ID) and uses the customer device ID to retrieve customerinformation from customer information database located on a paymentfacilitation server 1815. The customer may speak verbally upon enteringthe restaurant or otherwise coming within sufficient range of a voicedetection system, whether it is passive and unintrusive or the customeris encouraged such as from a sign in the doorway saying “please speak,”either to themselves, to the host or hostess, to another member of theirparty, or to someone or something else 1815. This speech, or thecustomer's face as scanned passively without the user initiating anystep of authentication themselves from a facial scanner, or somecombination of the two, may then be utilized to match the customer'sbiometrics to data stored in a customer information database 1820 eitherlocally or over the Internet. Upon completion of the biometricauthentication, the authorization generator predicts a pre-authorizedamount based upon customer history (e.g. customer's average ticketamount), customer account preferences (e.g. tipping defaults,incremental authorization limits), and restaurant ticket data (e.g.restaurant's average ticket amount) 1825. The restaurant SIP devicereceives a pre-authorized amount and the customer is seated 1830. Thecustomer the places an order 1835. When the customer is done dining,they may simply stand up and leave the restaurant without furtherinteraction with the restaurant staff. Upon leaving the restaurant thepre-authorized amount is converted into a charge 1840. When the customerleaves, the business payment facilitation device sends payment detailsto payment facilitation server, which either deducts amount fromcustomer's pre-paid account balance or sends charge to paymentprocessors.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-residentmachine (which should be understood to include intermittently connectednetwork-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in memory. Such network devices may havemultiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed toutilize different types of network communication protocols. A generalarchitecture for some of these machines may be described herein in orderto illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit offunctionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purposecomputers associated with one or more networks, such as for example anend-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or otherserver system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device,mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computingdevice), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any othersuitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, orany combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of thefeatures or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein maybe implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now to FIG. 11, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one aspect, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebuses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one aspect, a computing device 10 may be configuredor designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12, localmemory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In at least oneaspect, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of the differenttypes of functions and/or operations under the control of softwaremodules or components, which for example, may include an operatingsystem and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some aspects, processors 13 may include speciallydesigned hardware such as application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a particular aspect, alocal memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and/orread-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels ofcached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one aspect, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 11 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe aspects described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one aspect, a single processor 13 handles communications aswell as routing computations, while in other aspects a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In various aspects,different types of features or functionalities may be implemented in asystem according to the aspect that includes a client device (such as atablet device or smartphone running client software) and server systems(such as a server system described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of an aspect mayemploy one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example,remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured to store data,program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, orother information relating to the functionality of the aspects describedherein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions maycontrol execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or moreapplications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11, 16 may also beconfigured to store data structures, configuration data, encryptiondata, historical system operations information, or any other specific orgeneric non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device aspects may include non-transitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnon-transitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a standalone computingsystem. Referring now to FIG. 12, there is shown a block diagramdepicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or more aspects orcomponents thereof on a standalone computing system. Computing device 20includes processors 21 that may run software that carry out one or morefunctions or applications of aspects, such as for example a clientapplication 24. Processors 21 may carry out computing instructions undercontrol of an operating system 22 such as, for example, a version ofMICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE macOS™ or iOS™ operatingsystems, some variety of the Linux operating system, ANDROID™ operatingsystem, or the like. In many cases, one or more shared services 23 maybe operable in system 20, and may be useful for providing commonservices to client applications 24. Services 23 may for example beWINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linux environment, orany other type of common service architecture used with operating system21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable for receiving userinput, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen, microphone (forexample, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball, or anycombination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any type suitable forproviding output to one or more users, whether remote or local to system20, and may include for example one or more screens for visual output,speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25 may berandom-access memory having any structure and architecture known in theart, for use by processors 21, for example to run software. Storagedevices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor, orelectrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (such asthose described above, referring to FIG. 11). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a distributed computingnetwork, such as one having any number of clients and/or servers.Referring now to FIG. 13, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary architecture 30 for implementing at least a portion of asystem according to one aspect on a distributed computing network.According to the aspect, any number of clients 33 may be provided. Eachclient 33 may run software for implementing client-side portions of asystem; clients may comprise a system 20 such as that illustrated inFIG. 12. In addition, any number of servers 32 may be provided forhandling requests received from one or more clients 33. Clients 33 andservers 32 may communicate with one another via one or more electronicnetworks 31, which may be in various aspects any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellularnetworks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth),or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in theart; the aspect does not prefer any one network topology over anyother). Networks 31 may be implemented using any known networkprotocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some aspects, servers 32 may call external services 37when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer to additionaldata concerning a particular call. Communications with external services37 may take place, for example, via one or more networks 31. In variousaspects, external services 37 may comprise web-enabled services orfunctionality related to or installed on the hardware device itself. Forexample, in one aspect where client applications 24 are implemented on asmartphone or other electronic device, client applications 24 may obtaininformation stored in a server system 32 in the cloud or on an externalservice 37 deployed on one or more of a particular enterprise's oruser's premises. In addition to local storage on servers 32, remotestorage 38 may be accessible through the network(s) 31.

In some aspects, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both) may make use of oneor more specialized services or appliances that may be deployed locallyor remotely across one or more networks 31. For example, one or moredatabases 34 in either local or remote storage 38 may be used orreferred to by one or more aspects. It should be understood by onehaving ordinary skill in the art that databases in storage 34 may bearranged in a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety ofdata access and manipulation means. For example, in various aspects oneor more databases in storage 34 may comprise a relational databasesystem using a structured query language (SQL), while others maycomprise an alternative data storage technology such as those referredto in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLEBIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some aspects, variant databasearchitectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases,clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file datarepositories may be used according to the aspect. It will be appreciatedby one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known orfuture database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless aspecific database technology or a specific arrangement of components isspecified for a particular aspect described herein. Moreover, it shouldbe appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to aphysical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a singledatabase system, or a logical database within an overall databasemanagement system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a givenuse of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of thesesenses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning ofthe term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, some aspects may make use of one or more security systems 36and configuration systems 35. Security and configuration management arecommon information technology (IT) and web functions, and some amount ofeach are generally associated with any IT or web systems. It should beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art that anyconfiguration or security subsystems known in the art now or in thefuture may be used in conjunction with aspects without limitation,unless a specific security 36 or configuration system 35 or approach isspecifically required by the description of any specific aspect.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to peripherals such as a keyboard49, pointing device 50, hard disk 52, real-time clock 51, a camera 57,and other peripheral devices. NIC 53 connects to network 54, which maybe the Internet or a local network, which local network may or may nothave connections to the Internet. The system may be connected to othercomputing devices through the network via a router 55, wireless localarea network 56, or any other network connection. Also shown as part ofsystem 40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various aspects, functionality for implementing systems or methods ofvarious aspects may be distributed among any number of client and/orserver components. For example, various software modules may beimplemented for performing various functions in connection with thesystem of any particular aspect, and such modules may be variouslyimplemented to run on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various aspects described above. Accordingly, the present inventionis defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for predictive pre-authorization oftransactions using biometrics, comprising: a computing device comprisinga memory, a processor, and a non-volatile data storage device; adatabase on the non-volatile data storage device, the databasecomprising customer history data, the customer history data comprisingcustomer receipt data, bank, debit, or credit card details, and customerpreferences; a biometrics verification module comprising a firstplurality of programming instructions stored in the memory, andoperating on the processor, wherein the first plurality of programminginstructions, when operating on the processor, cause the computingdevice to: confirm an identity of a customer using biometrics; and senda confirmation of identity signal to an authorization generator; and anauthorization generator module comprising a first plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory, and operating on theprocessor, wherein the first plurality of programming instructions, whenoperating on the processor, cause the computing device to: receive theconfirmation of identity signal from the biometrics verification module;retrieve a subset of the customer history data from the customerdatabase that corresponds to the specific customer; compute a customeraverage transaction amount using the customer receipt data from thesubset of the customer history data; and determine, using amachine-learned predictive algorithm, a pre-authorization amount usingthe customer average transaction amount and the customer preferencesfrom the subset of the customer history data as inputs into themachine-learned predictive algorithm.
 2. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising a unified communications system which acts as a commonintermediary device through which the payment facilitation device, thepayment facilitation server, and registered wireless mobile devicecommunicate.
 3. A method for predictive pre-authorization oftransactions using biometrics, comprising the steps of: storing customerinformation in a database, the customer information comprising: a listof registered wireless mobile devices; a device identifier for eachregistered wireless mobile device; a photograph of a customer associatedwith each registered wireless mobile device; and payment details for thecustomer associated with each registered wireless mobile device; andperforming the following steps using a biometrics verification module,the biometrics verification module comprising a first memory, a firstprocessor, and a first plurality of programming instructions: confirmingan identity of a customer using biometrics; and sending a confirmationof identity signal to an authorization generator; and performing thefollowing steps using an authorization generator module, theauthorization generator module comprising a second memory, a secondprocessor, and a second plurality of programming instructions: receivingthe confirmation of identity signal from the biometrics verificationmodule; retrieving a subset of the customer history data from thecustomer database that corresponds to the specific customer; computing acustomer average transaction amount using the customer receipt data fromthe subset of the customer history data; and determining, using amachine-learned predictive algorithm, a pre-authorization amount usingthe customer average transaction amount and the customer preferencesfrom the subset of the customer history data as inputs into themachine-learned predictive algorithm.
 4. The method of claim 3 furthercomprising the step of using a unified communications system as a commonintermediary device through which the payment facilitation device, thepayment facilitation server, and registered wireless mobile devicecommunicate.